Skip to the Good Part
by Arwen02
Summary: COMPLETE. Sirius Black, the school 'player,' only has one fear... feelings! What will he do when he realizes that one particular girl, and himself, both harbor these evil things? Sirius/OC; James/Lily, with appearences by the mighty Remus.
1. Chapter 1

**someone was kind enough to point out to me that what was titled 'chapter one' actually consisted of both chapter one AND chapter two. it's been so long since I've been writing fanfiction or reading my old stuff that I wouldn't have known this, so thanks for the tip. :**

**this is, I would hope, the better-formatted-and-better-edited version.**

* * *

"Will you go out with me?"

"No."

"Please?"

"Begging will not help your case."

"Come on. I'll shower you."

"WHAT?"

"With gifts! What did you think?"  
There was a delightful pause. Only delightful because it was the first silence in quite a while.

"I swear, I will sock you a hard one, Black."

Remus Lupin looked up. "Black?" he said. "Did Lily just call James 'Black?' She's losing it."

"Thanks a lot, Remus," said Lily as she walked over to him.

"Yeah, and Remus," said James, "I'm over here, mate."

Remus looked puzzled as he watched James, who was about fifteen feet away from him, skip stones into the lake.

"Then who—?"

"Please, Hopeful?"

"My name is not HOPEFUL! IT'S HOPE! I WILL NOT GO OUT WITH YOU SIRIUS BLACK! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"  
There was a silence.

"Did that clear it up for you?" asked Peter next to him.

"Yep, that pretty much did it."

There was a loud cry of anguish from Hope Duncan, and she stomped away into the distance. "HUT!" was all the managed to blurt out as she walked the direction of Hagrid's Hut, making her sound much like she was playing American Football.

"Later," Lily replied to her friend. "Poor Hope," she said, pulling at the grass and staring off into the distance.

Sirius walked over. "I was sure I had her that time," he said as he sat down, but he certainly didn't seem upset like James after facing another rather ungracious rejection from Lily.

"And to think that I though this would all be over when Lily and James started going out," Remus said.

"Yeah, speaking of that, why did you assume it was James and me fighting if we're dating?" asked Lily.

Remus smiled. "The sound of you two fighting has been imprinted in my brain," he stated.

Lily bit her lip and beamed. "I didn't _mean _to fall for him," she said. "It was an accident."

"Obviously," replied Remus as he watched Lily cuddle into James, who had just returned from playing fetch with the giant squid.

"Anyway," Lily said, turning to Sirius. "You don't even fancy her. You just want to add her to your collection."

Sirius looked up. "Who?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Hope!"

"Yes?"

Lily turned to see her 5'5'' friend with her medium length mahogany brown hair tied up in a hasty ponytail. She brushed her side-bangs out of her brown eyes. "Well?"

"Oh," said Lily. "Hagrid not there?"

"No," Hope replied. "Look, Lil, I'm going to go inside, ok?"

"Sure thing," said Lily. "I'll come with."

"No, it's ok. I just want to change. I'll see you later. Love ya."

"Love you too," Lily said.

0o0o0

Hope walked down the corridor. She wanted to change into something less figure-flattering. Hope was always very self conscious about herself, especially after an encounter like that with Sirius.

Hope was not what you would call skinny or thin. Lily was thin. Lily, with her lean legs, flat abs, and straight hair, was thin. Hope was far from that. Her hips were quite wide, her waist was narrow ( but not quite as narrow as Lily's), but he blessing and curse of Hope's figure was he bust. She was naturally big, but she was never left alone for it by Sirius. She was very touchy on the subject. Sirius had once asked if she'd used a spell or if it was an illusion, and she promptly punched him in the jaw. So for reasons similar to the one mentioned, she ended up buying a lot of baggy t-shirts.

When Hope made it to the dorm, she looked at herself in the mirror. She took off her tank top and put on a big boxy t-shirt instead. Damn that Sirius. Sure, he was absolutely gorgeous, but his dream was to date every good-looking girl in or around his age. If Hope ever dated him, he'd probably use her and dump her in a week.

Sure, Hope had had a soft spot for Sirius in the past… but after numerous remarks about her figure, she had taken to disliking him greatly.

0o0o0

"Padfoot, why do you keep asking her out?" question James a week later.

"To be fair, mate, look at your own life. You never did stop asking Lily, did you?" replied Sirius as they walked down the corridor. He shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "Anyway, I've officially given up on her."

"You have?" James asked.

"Yeah," said Sirius. "No girl is worth that much."

"Well," said James, "I'm afraid we'll have to disagree there."

A fair distance behind them, walking with her head to the floor, was Hope Duncan. Now she definitely knew that she needed to move on from Sirius. The boys went outside, and hope went to the common room, where she found Lily.

"Hey, Hope," said Lily. "I'm going swimming I the lake. Want to come?"

Hope though about it. "Yeah, I think I will," she said. She ran upstairs and put on her swimsuit, a one-piece, and put a sun-dress over it. She hopped back down the stairs and joined Lily. "Ready," she said.

When they reached the lake, Lily ran in immediately. Hope followed. They soon had an audience, however. Hope's head burst above the surface of the water as she came up for breath. She saw the four marauders sitting at the shore, watching rather amusedly. Lily stuck her tongue out at them.

James slapped a hand to his chest. "I'm hurt," he said in mock grief.

"Hey, the swimsuit suits you, _Eartha," _Sirius called to Hope.

Hope nearly choked herself and sank. She disappeared for a few moments and reappeared a few feet from the shore. "Who the HELL told you my middle name!" she sputtered. The gorgeous look of a smile and a laugh on Sirius's face made Hope melt. But she would remain angry.

Sirius smirked. "I do have my sources, you know. Friends in high places."

"That's because your head's in the clouds half the time, you brute," she said, and tackled him.

"What— is—wrong with you?" she asked, banging her fists into his chest.

Sirius grabbed her arms to hold her still. Hope was briefly aware that she was in a position that many girls would like to be in right now. She was also aware of how warm he was… and his hands…. She snapped herself out of it.

"I don't know if this is a bad time, since you're on top of me and everything, but we're throwing a party in the room of requirement and I was wondering if you would _not _like to attend?"

"No," Hope spat.

"Great! I'll see you there, then!"

"Wait—" said Hope, confused. "What?"

"You know, I like the _position _you're taking on me."

Hope jumped off of him.

Sirius grinned and propped himself on his elbows. "Oh, and by the way, I have moved on from asking you out. So… See you at the party?"

Hope stuck out her tongue at him and jumped back into the water

0o0o0

Lily and hope were lying in the sun, drying off. Lily had told the boys to bugger off for a while.

"So," said Lily. "Will you go to the party with me, then?"

"You approve of this?" asked Hope, laughing. "You are, you know, Head Girl."

Lily smiled. "You know, I've kept most Gryffindor parties under control all year. But come one. It's the end of the year! Will you come?"

"Sirius will be there," Hope commented.

"Yes," Lily agreed.

Hope looked down. "Well… fine. But I'm not talking to him."

They went to their room after dinner to get ready. Lily wore dark denim capris and a t-shirt. Hope wore a blouse and jeans.

Lily stared at her. "You look like a nun."

"Nun's don't wear jeans," Hope argued.

"At least let your hair down," said Lily. "And put on cooler jeans. Dark ones. Tight."

"Fine."

"And let me fix your hair a bit…" said Lily, walking over to her with a thoughtful look on her face. "we can still make you hot without you looking like a slut."

Fifteen minutes later, they walked down the corridor together, after they had gotten dressed. Hope's long shaggy bangs were straitened and hanging in her eyes, and the rest of her hair was straitened , too/. Lily had also put on black eye-makeup onto Hope, giving her eyes a 'mysterious' look, as Lily had called it.

"Where is it at?" asked Hope.

"The Room of Requirement," Lily replied. "Walk past it three times and think, 'a place for a party that no one can find unless they were invited.'"

"Wow. That's quite a mouthful."

"Sure is," Lily said. "But we need to be precautious."

The two girls did just that. When they entered, despite it being early, the people were already deep into the party.

"Oh, look. Drunks," said Hope. "Fun fun."

In the crowd of people, Hope was separated from Lily. She bumped into Sirius.

"Hello, Hopeful," he said.

"My name is Hope," she said.

"Want a drink?" he asked ignoring the comment.

"No thanks," Hope replied. "I don't drink anything at parties. Nothing. I brought a water bottle."

Sirius stared. "You drink water at parties," he stated.

"I do believe that's what I said," replied Hope.

Sirius smiled that Sirius smile. "Whatever. Afraid of being spiked?"  
"I guess," said Hope, smiling and looking down. Hope began to walk around the room. Sirius followed her. Hope was mildly aware of this. "Wow. Doors everywhere. I'm assuming it's for those very friendly couples?"

"More or less," said Sirius. He took a swig of beer. Hope cringed. Gross.

Hope sat down on a couch. Sirius followed suite.

"So," he said.

"Sirius, are you _really _going to attempt to make friendly conversation with me?"

"Yes," he said.

Hope smiled— actually smiled— at Sirius. "Can I ask you something personal?" she said.

"Sure," replied Sirius, taking another swig of beer.

"Are you drunk?"

He paused and smiled. "Maybe mildly intoxicated, but nothing more."

"Oh," said Hope. "Well, as unnattractive as you smell because of it, I like you better this way."

He scoffed mockingly. "You weirdo. And to think I actually had a crush on you."

Hope felt her self heat up at this comment.

"Let's dance," Said Sirius suddenly, pulling Hope up and over to the middle of the dance floor and very close to himself.

"Sirius, don't ruin it," Hope whined. They had had such a nice conversation.

He pulled her even closer to him. "I'm going to kiss you," he said in a sing-song voice.

"No, Sirius, don't," said Hope. Her face heated up.

"Yes I am. Are you going to try and stop me?"

Hope looked to the floor.

The grin left Sirius's face. He had only just been messing with her. But he had expected her to fight back, like she always did. She didn't. He looked closer at her. Her face was all red.

"Hope, I was only messing. I'm always only messing with you. You know that, right?" he said, freaking out. Feelings sort of sacred him. The reason he had asked her out all those years, unlike James asking Lily out, was just to bug her.

Hope gulped. "Y-yeah. Of course. I mean, heaven forbid you were actually being serious for once." She tried to pull herself away, but Sirius had a good grip on her.

Sirius was making Hope Duncan— _the _Hope Duncan, who never took any crap from Sirius— nervous. He looked at her chest. It was rising and falling rapidly. She gulped. She was breathing heavily.

_Oh my gosh, _though Sirius. _She actually likes me. As in… feelings!_

"My eyes are up here, Sirius," she whispered.

He looked up. "Oh, Hope, that's not what I—"  
"That's all you ever care about, isn't it, Sirius?" she asked, and pulled herself away from his grip.

Sirius ran after her and cornered her by a door.

"Hope," he said, his mouth was dry. "I…" He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry."

She looked up at him, her bangs nearly covering her eyes.

"I mean, I didn't know… that you… That…"

"That I liked you?" said Hope miserably. "And hated you?" _And you were killing me every time you asked me out and I knew you didn't mean it?_

"You're messing my brain up," he whispered, his breath ruffling her bangs.

"Please don't take advantage of me," said Hope. "I don't want you to—"

He kissed her. She kissed him back. Sirius pressed her body against the door and she put her arms around his neck. Hope Duncan was kissing Sirius Black.


	2. Chapter 2

**the correct chapter two.  
please inform me of other typos/formatting issues/any mistakes.**

* * *

"Sirius."

There was no reply.

"_Sirius._"

There was still no answer.

"SIRIUS!"

Sirius jumped. "What the hell?" he shouted, turning around and facing James. "I'm right here. There is no need TO SHOUT!"

"Well, I called your name about a _million _times, and I received no answer!" James exclaimed. "You were to busy looking across the hall at Hope's arse.

"I— What the hell? No I wasn't," Sirius complained. He put his fork into his eggs and began eating breakfast.

James laughed to himself and said, "so, what did you two get up to last night? I saw you go into one of the rooms."

Sirius choked on his bacon. "You _did?_" he whispered.

James made a face. "Yes… Was I not supposed to? I was going to _congratulate_ you for finally winning her over, but apparently…" he trailed off. "Are you going to explain to me why this is a problem?"

Sirius looked around."You did _not _see us go into that room," Sirius said. "Do you understand that?"

"Yes master," James replied in a monotone. "I did not see you go into a room with Hope Dunc—" Sirius covered James's mouth. "Ok," said James, muffled. Sirius removed his hand. "What did you and Hope _not _do in there?"

Sirius sighed. "Nothing happened," Sirius said. "Nothing _serious, _anyway."

"So…" said James. "Why are we not allowed to talk about it?"

"Um," said Sirius. "Well, uh…"

"Hello, Hope!" said James loudly and a little over-enthusiastically.

Sirius looked up. Sure enough, there was Hope and Lily walking over. Hope was examining the floor, while Lily was looking up and stifling a yawn.

"'Morning, ladies," said James as Lily sat next to him and Hope sat across from him. "May I offer you some toast?"

"Yes you may," said Lily, taking some of the plate. James leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Tired, Dear?" he asked.

Lily smiled. "Very much so," she replied.

Hope sat there avoiding eye contact with Sirius, who was sitting across from her on the other side of James.

James looked at her. "Wow, Hope. You look exhausted. What time were you up 'til?"

Sirius shot James a nasty look.

Hope looked up at James, reading his face to see what he meant by the question. After a few moments, she answered, "I went back to the dorms a little while after Lily. And I think _you_ know how long _she_ was up." Hope looked at Lily and gave her a discreet smile to show she meant no harm by it.

Remus sat down. He around at everyone's awkward faces. "Ok, what's going on?"

"Nothing," everyone replied in unison.

"I'm done," said Sirius at the same time Hope said, "I'm not hungry."

The two blushed and walked away.

Lily sighed. "Those two are so meant for each other," said Lily.

"I'll talk to him," he said.

"And I'll talk to her," replied Lily.

0o0o0

"Hey," said James.

Sirius looked up. He was in the common room. It was around seven, or 'rush hour' as the Gryffindors called it, the part of the evening where everyone in Gryffindor is in the common room.

"Hey," replied Sirius, looking up.

James sat down of the sofa in front of the fireplace with Sirius. He looked the direction Sirius was gazing in. James grinned. "Please admit it," said James, smiling.

"Admit what?" said Sirius, who was gazing intently at Hope who was across the room laughing with Lily.

"You want to forget that _it _happened because when you kissed her you actually felt something other than her body."

Sirius looked over at his best friend. "Nice way to put it."

"So you agree?" asked James.

Sirius sighed and went back to watching her. "I don't know, man. I've always thought she was ok, you know? She's good looking and nice and all, but it turns out she…. she actually has feelings for me. Like, _real _ones. Not just, 'oh Sirius, you're so fine,' feelings."

"And that is a very bad thing," said James, confused.

"It's just… After she left I was like, confused. I've fancied girls before, right? But most relationships I've had were feeling-free and no strings attached."

"I see," said James.

"I see," said Lily across the room. She was talking to Hope and had finally wormed out of her what had really happened the previous night.

"Yeah," said Hope. "So he knows now that I've liked him, which is extremely embarrassing. He probably won't talk to me ever again, now that he can say that he's snogged me." She sighed. "But I don't think he knew that every time he asked me out it tormented me because I knew I had to say no."

Lilly nodded. "I think he might come around," said Lily. "I did for James. Maybe he will for you."

"Maybe," said Hope.

The next morning, Lily woke Hope up at seven.

"Ug!" cried Hope.

"Come on! I want to go for a run before school starts." Lily said.

Hope rolled out of bed. "But _Lily_," she whined.

Lily walked across the landing in her pajamas to the boy's dorms.

Hope trudged along. 'What're you doing?" she yawned.

"I need to steal a sweatshirt from James," whispered Lily as she opened the door. Hope followed her in. "You'll wake them all up," she whined. "I doubt it. These lads are deep sleepers.

Meanwhile, Sirius, who hadn't had a good night's sleep, rolled over in his bed. His eyes opened as he heard voices in the dorm… Female voices! He stuck his head out the curtain of his four-poster bed and his eyes widened.

Lily was bent over digging through James's stuff and looking for a sweatshirt. He had a good view of her butt. But next to her was Hope, wearing loose pajama pants that were rolled down very low and a tight tank tom that came up rather high. She was yawning and stretching; her arms were way up in the air.

"Wow," said Sirius.

Hope turned and let out a small scream. Lily stood up, a big navy sweatshirt in her hand. "What?" then she saw Sirius.

"Sirius!" said Hope. "I'm barely wearing—"

"You're wearing what every other girl wears except you look much better in it," he said, grinning. "You should be comfortable with your body, Hopeful."

"Uh oh. We don't' want to start a war, here," said Lily. "Come on Hope, let's—"

"Lily?" muttered a groggy voice. Lily turned. James was standing up, rubbing his eyes. "What're you—doing—here?" he yawned.

"Oh, just borrowing a sweatshirt," she said conversationally. "Oh, and I like your boxers, James. They're cute."

James smiled and funny, sleepy grin.

"Ok, well, we'll be going now," said Hope, pulling Lily by the arm before Lily changed her mind about running and stayed here instead.

"What's goin' on?" asked Remus, sitting up and opening his curtains. He was wearing boxers and an undershirt.

Hope dropped Lily's arm and they both stared at Remus.

James and Sirius noticed and both started complaining.

"Hey, put a better shirt on," said James at the same time Sirius said, "what're you looking at?" to Hope.

Hope smiled. "Wow, Remus. You are…"

"Toned?" suggested Lily.

"Strapping," said Hope.

"Ok, enough," said Sirius, disgusted by the look of smugness on Remus's face. He stood up and put a hand on each of the girls' shoulder and pushed them out. "Bye-bye. Feel free to come back when it's only me in the room." And he closed the door.

Hope and Lily stood still on the landing.

"Wow," said Lily.

"Yep," said Hope. They turned to each other and grinned.

"That was _so _the best place in the world," said Lily.

"Did you see Remus? Wow, man. I didn't know…" she trailed on and on, and the tow girls had a rather fun time discussing the event as they jogged around the school.

0o0o0

Sirius was having a problem— he had been thinking about Hope all week. Never, _ever _a good sign. Sirius had always been the guy who believed in 'friends with benefits.' But friends with benefits meant no devotion to one single person. And Sirius did not want anyone else to be 'friends' with Hope. It's not like he could say that, though, because it'd ruin his rep. These feelings were really freaking him out.

James and Sirius were walking down the corridor when Hope stepped out of a classroom. James was talking about the Quidditch match that had taken place yesterday, when he noticed that Sirius was watching Hope. For about the twentieth time that week.

"Hope!" James shouted suddenly.

Sirius's eyes widened. "What the Hell are you doing?" he whispered urgently.

Hope turned her head to see James waving at her.

"Hope!" he said again, until she walked over. "Hey, Hope," James said. "What's up?"

"Nothing much," she said. "What about you?"

James shrugged. Sirius, meanwhile, was finding the ceiling very interesting.

"So, did you see the game yesterday?" he asked Hope.

"Yep. You guys were great."

James shrugged. "I can't take _all _the credit. After all, Sirius did pretty ok, too. Didn't he?"

Hope looked at Sirius, who glanced up. "Hi," he said stupidly.

She smiled awkwardly. "Yes. Sirius did very well."

"He's an excellent beater, isn't he?" James said.

Hope bit her lip and looked away. "Don't push it, James."

"Push what?" asked James conversationally. "According to Sirius, I didn't see you two walk into a room alone together at all."

Sirius froze. Hope froze. In fact, the entire hallway froze, and looked at James.

"What?" he asked.

Sirius whacked him across the back of the head.

"Uhm," Hope stuttered. "I'm—I'm g-going to b-be late for c-class," she fumbled. "I've got to go."

Sirius glared at James.

"What?" James asked, shrugging.

"You moron!" Sirius whispered urgently as they walked away.

"Who, me?" asked James innocently.

Sirius sighed angrily and ran a hand through his hair. "I wasn't planning on telling anyone this," he said.

"Why?" asked James. "I don't get what the whole problem is. You like her. She likes you… right?" Sirius didn't answer. "So shouldn't everything be all happy-sappy now?"

Sirius bit his lip.

"Not that anyone care what _I _think," said Remus, walking up to them, " but in my opinion, it appears that Sirius has a fear of relationships. I think you should talk to her."

James and Sirius turned to Remus.

"How did you know about this?" asked James conversationally.

"I'm all-knowing," responded Remus with a shrug. "And anyway, you just announced it to the whole corridor."

"How could you suggest such a thing?" whispered Sirius urgently. "No man should have to… talk about his… his… _feelings!_"

Remus rolled his eyes. "If you keep living like that, you'll never get a woman."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "And how many girls have you been with, Moony?"

"Hey. The point is, they'll never stay with you. Every girl needs to know she's _loved, _mate. She needs to know that you _care._ Eventually, it comes up in every good relationship."

There was a pause.

"And that was Dr. Remus Lupin, not only chocolate lover, but relationship god and expert!" began James. "Stay tuned, because up nest we have that freaky little old lady that's an expert on se—"

Remus covered his mouth. "Eleven-year-olds in the building, Prongs."

"Right. Gotcha."

Sirius rubbed his neck uncomfortably. He had a nasty feeling that he was going to have to do the unthinkable.

0o0o0

"Um, Hope?" said Sirius awkwardly after dinner. Hope was waiting at the entrance to the Great Hall for Lily. She felt herself heat up a bit. _Dammit, _she thought. _I'm probably turning red. Stupid hot boy. _

"What's up, Sirius?" Hope said as relaxed and laid back and casual and completely and utterly calm as possible. Obviously, she wasn't any of those things.

"Hey, Hope!" said Sirius, trying to be his smooth, suave self. He leaned against the wall next to Hope. "I think that we need to have a discussion."

"Really? About what, Sirius," said Hope, smiling and looking at him pleasantly.

"Oh, you know. Just have a chat. Catch up with each other. The usual," he replied, equally as pleasant sounding. It was quite obvious that each was trying to pretend that _it _hadn't happened.

"Okay. What would you like to talk about?" _I'm going to make _him _say it, _thought Hope. Suddenly, however, a crowd of people started to come through the door.

"Would you care to carry this conversation on elsewhere?" asked Sirius kindly.

"Elsewhere as in a broom closet or an empty classroom?" asked Hope. "That is very cliché, you know."

Sirius nodded. "Indeed it is. Therefore we shall continue it over here." He walked over to a portrait of a fat wizard sitting in a chair, sleeping. He tapped the top of the frame three times with his wand, and then said, "open."

The fat wizard grunted and woke with a start, then the portrait opened to reveal a long dimly lit corridor.

Hope giggled. "How handy," she said. She followed him into the secret corridor. "Where does this lead to?" she asked curiously, forgetting to act overly-pleasant.

"I can't remember," Sirius said. 'I haven't used it in a while."

"Oh," said Hope. "How did you find it?"

Sirius grinned. "I am a man of many talents."

"You're no man. You're a boy at heart."

Sirius looked up at the ceiling. "Hope," he said. "Hope, Hope, Hope."

"Sirius," she replied.

There was a silence. "Well?" asked Hope.

"Well what?"

"What did you want to talk about?"

Sirius stared at her. "Ok. I'm not going to beat around the bush."

"Good."

"I'm going to be straightforward about it. "

"You should be."

"I'm just going to be blunt and say it."

"Swell."

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her choice of words. "OK. Well, Hope, the thing is, we snogged."

Hope couldn't suppress a smile.

"That we did, Sirius," she said, looking anywhere but his face so that he wouldn't see that she was laughing.

Sirius leaned up against the wall again. "Hopeful, dear, are you laughing at me?" he said, smiling.

She sniggered. "Nope."

He smiled again. "I think you are," he said.

Hope turned her back on him. "No I'm not. Proceed with the conversation."

Sirius smiled to himself. "Okay. Hope, you and I had a good snog last week—"

Hope sniggered again.

"Hopeful, look at me when I'm talking to you please," he said, and he was grinning now.

"No," said Hope bluntly.

"Yes."

"Fine." She turned looked at the floor, and had her tongue in her cheek as she tried not to laugh. Hope didn't know why she found this so funny, but she did.

"Okay," said Sirius. "Once again." he put his hand under her chin and lifted her face up so that she was looking at him. She took one look at him and the corner's of her mouth started to twitch as she fought cracking up. "Hope, last week, at night, you and I, the two of us, walked into a bedroom and snogged. Comprende? We need to talk about that." He was still getting the same response from her. "Hope? Do you understand what I'm saying?" he said. "Do you know what a snog is? Do I have to show you?" He was laughing now, because Hope's eyes were watering. "We made out! In a room! Alone! And it was a pretty good snog, too… But that's beside the point. The point is, we have barely spoken since! What does this mean for us?"

Hope looked him the eyes, and before she could stop herself, she cracked up laughing. "Can't—breathe—" she said. Her face was turning red and tears were in her eyes. She leaned her hand against the stone wall and tried to get some oxygen into her.

Sirius threw his arms up in despair. "Why is this so funny? I was all prepared to be serious and have a relationship talk, something that I can say I've never had to do before, and you— you're— you're rolling on the ground laughing!" he was laughing, too, at the sight of Hope.

"I'm— a nervous— laugher—" she sputtered. She tried to compose her self. "But —but think about it! We're— we're in a secret corridor— and you're on the verge— of telling me what a snog— is— because you don't think I can— understand—you!" She continued to laugh. "Okay," she said. "I'm okay." She stood up straight.

"Ok," said Sirius. He leaned against the wall again. Hope did the same.

"So," said Hope. "What're we going to do about it?"

"What do you _want _to do about it?" Sirius asked leaning in towards her a bit.

There was a pause. "You know, we're not very good at these relationship talks," said Hope.

"You're right," Sirius said, moving closer to her.

"I'm not good at being open about my feelings," said Hope, looking into his eyes, then at the rest of his face. "But you seem to be. Otherwise you wouldn't have such a reputation with the ladies."

"What if I told you that I've never actually really _fancied _any of those girl?" asked Sirius, looking back at her.

"I'd say… Well, I'd feel used."

"What if I told you that there was one girl that I couldn't get out of my bloody head for a week?"

"I'd feel cheated that you were thinking of some other girl while you were eating my face."

Sirius smiled again, that ever-so-charming natural smile, the one he smiled when he was actually happy, and not feeling mischievous. "What if I said that the girl whose face I was attached to happens to be the very same girl I can't stop thinking about?"

Hope felt her face get warm again.

"What if _I _told _you _that we're not really getting anywhere, because we keep satin 'what _if _I said,' and not actually _saying _it?"

Sirius took a moment to figure that out, and then leaned closer to her face, so that they were inches apart. "Well, I, like you, am not very open with my feelings?"

Hope laughed. "We really _are _bad at these kinds of talks. Maybe we should both agree that we both really, really fancy someone—"

_"—_maybe even love?"

Hope smiled. Her stomach did a somersault. "—Maybe even love someone one very, very much and can't stop thinking about him or her. And maybe we should skip the rest of the talking part and go straight to the… _other_ part." She was speaking in barely a whisper.

Sirius smiled his charming smile. "You mean this part, Hopeful?" he said, and kissed deeply. He pulled her close t her and ran his hand up her back.

Hope put her arms around his neck an pressed herself closer to him. She pulled away, ever-so-slightly. "Yes, I meant his part."


End file.
